The quest to meet consumers’ growing demand for crunchy, good-for-you snacks has a new ally: functional chickpea flour.

The ingredient offers advantages in color, flavor, texture, consistency and nutritional profile in the increasingly popular category of extruded snacks and cereal.

Scoular, a global agribusiness based in Omaha, Nebraska, is selling this unique ingredient to the North American market. The company has taken the added step of establishing an R&D office in Minneapolis to collaborate with manufacturers on incorporating functional chickpea flour.

Scoular’s research has shown that, because of its functional properties and neutral flavor and color, functional chickpea flour can provide solutions in baking as an egg reduction or replacement tool and in dairy-alternative products like yogurt and cheese, gluten-free products and better-for-you extruded snacks and cereals.

The timing is right for a focus on extruded products, with consumers saying they are snacking more often and more often looking for plant-based snacks, according to reports by Circana and Mondelez.

Source: Scoular

Circana reported last spring that sales in the puffed and extruded snacks category had increased by 16.2 percent from the previous year.

Applied Foods reported that the global market for extruded snacks hit about $52 billion at the close of last year and is projected to reach $78 billion by 2030.

Frito-Lay in July reported that 95 percent of Americans’ Super Bowl dishes last February included snacks, and said consumers have increased expectations for snacks to have functional benefits as well as flavor.

Scoular’s functional chickpea flour, unlike raw or steamed chickpea flour, offers gelling, emulsifying and foaming properties that can provide structural and textural benefits while delivering high protein and fiber content.

“Our research partners have done application testing on many ingredients for extrusion,” said Lisa Young, Scoular R&D Manager. “It was exciting to see how well and how quickly we were able to get up and running and produce high-quality product. There was a major difference in expansion and performance between the functional chickpea flour and the alternative.”

The benefits are the result of a process that removes flavor, color and protein inhibitors while priming the native starches. Chickpea ingredients are typically beany in flavor and can add a yellow hue to products. However, functional chickpea flour is easy to use in application because of its neutral flavor and color, making it suitable for seamless integration into applications.

Functional chickpea flour can replace allergenic or animal-based ingredients or expensive functional proteins. It is a grain-free, allergen-friendly, clean label ingredient that creates volume, light and airy yet crunchy textures while delivering protein and fiber.

Because of the low-fat content and the consistent functionality of this ingredient, it performs well in the extruder -- it helps to prevent “surging” and scorching of the material which can result in consistently higher product quality and production efficiencies. Cost savings also can result from the reduced need of protein concentrates or isolates required in recipes.

Of special interest to consumers pursuing healthy lifestyles, such as gluten-free or keto diets, functional chickpea flour works well with protein ingredients to make higher protein snacks.

Because it has expansion properties, starch isn’t needed for that functionality. Starch can dilute the total protein content and isn’t favorable as one of the first ingredients on an ingredient deck in better-for-you snacks and cereals. The ability to reduce protein powders can help with hard textures and off flavors.

Source: Scoular

In addition, the functional chickpea flour already has 20 percent protein so it can enhance the total protein content of the product without compromising taste or texture. Scoular has created prototypes using functional chickpea flour and pea protein that are neutral in flavor with a crisp and airy texture at 40 percent protein.

Scoular’s in-house research and development team offers a collaborative approach to sharing functional chickpea flour’s capabilities and can work directly with customers and manufacturers on formulation and testing.

To learn more about this breakthrough ingredient, email FoodSales@scoular.com or call (612) 851-3737.